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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga606
consciousness, and since his time the leading thinkers have slowly but surely
moved forward to his position.
At the present time it is generally conceded that at least ninety per cent of
our mental operations take place in the out-of-conscious realm. Prof. Elmer
Gates, the well known scientist, has said: “At least ninety per cent of our
mental life is sub-conscious. If you will analyze your mental operations you
will find that conscious thinking is never a continuous line of consciousness,
but a series of conscious data with great intervals of subconscious. We sit
and try to solve a problem, and fail. We walk around, try again, and fail.
Suddenly an idea dawns that leads to the solution of the problem. The
subconscious processes were at work. We do not volitionally create our
own thinking. It takes place in us. We are more or less passive recipients. We
cannot change the nature of a thought, or of a truth, but we can, as it were,
guide the ship by a moving of the helm. Our mentation is largely the result of
the great Cosmic Whole upon us.”
Sir William Hamilton says that the sphere of our consciousness is only
a small circle in the center of a far wider sphere of action and thought, of
which we are conscious through its effects.
Taine says: “Outside of a little luminous circle, lies a large ring of twilight,
and beyond this an indefinite night; but the events of this twilight and this
night are as real as those within the luminous circle.”
Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent English scientist, speaking of the planes of
the mind, says: “Imagine an iceberg glorying in its crisp solidity, and sparkling
pinnacles, resenting attention paid to its submerged self, or supporting
region, or to the saline liquid out of which it arose, and into which in due
course it will some day return. Or, reversing the metaphor, we might liken
our present state to that of the hulls of ships submerged in a dim ocean
among strange monsters, propelled in a blind manner through space; proud
perhaps of accumulating many barnacles as decoration; only recognizing
our destination by bumping against the dock-wall; and with no cognizance
of the deck and cabins above us, or the spars and sails—no thought of the